Last May, we learned that Deadpool & Wolverine writer and star Ryan Reynolds was in the early stages of writing a new Deadpool movie featuring the Merc with a Mouth and "three or four" X-Men characters.
The idea is that Wade Wilson would be a supporting player in a project separate from Jake Schreier's X-Men reboot. At the time, it was said that Reynolds is currently working independently from the studio, meaning it hadn't been officially greenlit (it's no secret that Kevin Feige turned down several of his Deadpool 3 pitches, so there's no guarantee it'll happen).
The trades broke the news about Reynolds' plans, and social media scoopers later claimed to have learned that it's an X-Force—or, at the very least, X-Force-inspired—movie.
Our latest update comes from Daniel Richtman, who has learned that Marvel Studios is moving forward with X-Force. This is presumably the same project that Reynolds is working on, and could even be what brings Shawn Levy back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The big question is how this would fit into Marvel Studios' wider plans for the X-Men. While we know that a new MCU will be created in the wake of Avengers: Secret Wars, serving as a soft reboot for the franchise, it's possible that the Multiverse will still exist and that X-Force would play out in a parallel reality.
At the same time, the studio has big plans for the X-Men. If the team is already established when we meet them, it would arguably be easy enough to explain X-Force's presence in the MCU.
Deadpool had a memorable stint with the team during Rick Remender's X-Force run. In that, the anti-hero was paired up with Wolverine, Archangel, Psylocke, and Fantomex. We also know that Reynolds was eager to develop an X-Force movie when the X-Men rights were still with 20th Century Fox.
In fact, that was expected to be released before what was then Deadpool 3. Of course, the Disney/Fox merger closed the door on any future Marvel movies from the studio behind X-Men: Dark Phoenix and Fantastic Four.
Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow was attached to X-Force once upon a time and had some unique plans for Wade Wilson. "I wanted this antagonist chasing them the whole time. Deadpool was introduced as a villain in the original X-Force run, so I had our main villain hire a mercenary to hire this group of ragtag villains down and the mercenary hired was Deadpool."
"He was in motorcycle leathers with this red ballistic face mask. I made it very clear he was going to look just like he did in the comic books."
"I wanted Ryan [Reynolds] to play the part...I got in touch with Ryan, got him the script and he loved it," the filmmaker continued. "He said it was, like, a grand cameo for Deadpool. It was a supporting part. I played him as an antagonist but, ultimately, they turned him in the end."
Stay tuned for updates on X-Force as we have them.